Classroom moving to village

A former Otumoetai Primary School pupil will continue fighting to keep a 116-year-old classroom she was once taught in on school grounds after it was decided the building would move to Historic Village.

Tauranga City Council yesterday confirmed the classroom will be relocated from the school on Otumoetai Road to 17th Avenue in the next few days.

The 116-year-old classroom at Otumoetai Primary School will be relocated to Historic Village.

The decision to remove the classroom, built in the 1890s, was made by the Ministry of Education in June to allow for two new classrooms to be built on school grounds.

Despite fighting for the classroom to stay, Alys-Ingrid Wicksteed says she and fellow supporters haven't given up just yet.

'We have 150 people on our emailing list, plus a large phone list and we're going to notify all these people tonight. There's going to be a big hear and cry.”

Alys attended the primary school from 1948 to 1955 and was taught in the classroom.

The cost to remove the classroom from the school site is estimated at a little more than $30,000, which Alys says is a complete waste of money. She says a fellow supporter offered $200,000 to the school to retain the school room about a year ago, but the offer was not taken.

'To me it's absolutely shocking that something like this would happen. That money is completely wasted and the building will sit incognito when it could've been used a historic memorable place.”

Although the classroom isn't staying at the site, Alys is happy it's going in one piece.

'That's the best part about it because it's not being pulled down and distributed to nothing. I visualised it as a little historic museum with a lot of memorabilia on the road in Otumoetai which I think it should have been.

'Whereas I think it's going to be lost in 17th Avenue. Taking it out of the Otumoetai area is not a good thing.”

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby says the building is currently being prepared to be shifted and he understands it will be removed and transported in two parts over the next few days.

'They've got to take the roof off it and shift it and put the roof back on and secure it. It's a reasonable sized job.”

Stuart understands the Ministry of Education is paying for the transfer estimated to cost about $30k.

He says the reason for shifting the building is simply to save it as part of the city's history.

'We don't actually have a large number of historic buildings so we've offered to find a space for it down there in the short term until we can find a tenant and have it properly located permanently on the site at the Historic Village.

'Our priority was to save it as part of Tauranga's history and we'll work through a proper site location in due course and hopefully find a tenant for it as well.”

Stuart is unsure if memorabilia inside will be moved with the building but assumes it will be a bare classroom.

Council property manager Anthony Averill says the building will be stored at Historic Village until they receive sufficient funding to properly locate the building and upgrade to be used as part of the village.

Anthony says it will cost about $60,000 - 70,000 to maintain the building once it's relocated.

'It's certainly a good place to have these buildings, but they do come at some cost and obviously the cost of maintaining the classroom at the village is a factor.

'So that's why we're hoping that the community will support the building being put there by assisting with its costs.”

Council will hold meetings next week to discuss fundraising options and Anthony says if sufficient costs aren't met they will have to reconsider whether the building stays at the village long term.

If people would like to donate money to the classroom they can contact Anthony Averill at TCC on 07 5777 000.

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1 comment

Posted on 17-07-2014 16:25 | By Murray.Guy

An excellent start for fundraising towards the cost to preserve it, restore it! 'We have 150 people on our emailing list". Watch the list shrink! I'll contribute to some site works!


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